Lord of War

B. Merritt already wrote an excellent review on the story, so Im not gonna go into that. Instead, Im going to touch the fact that this movie, sadly, lost all of its bonus content during the transition from DVD to Blu-ray. Granted, the bonus content wasnt exactly mind-blowing either, but the clips of the cast and crew talking about this production were still very nice. Since this is actually my favorite movie, and considering the massive space that a Blu-ray disc has, I assumed that along with the improved HD video and audio quality, there might be more extra material. Unfortunately, not only is there no such added content, but the bonus content found in the DVD version of the film, has all been completely removed. All of it. 100% gone. Instead, the only bonus content is a trailer of a few Lionsgate movies coming to Blu-ray. Wow, how thrilling... I didnt rate this with 5 stars, due to the fact that they removed the bonus content that had already been included in the DVD, which is stupid, since a DVD can store much, much, much less space.

Ill get to the point (Im not a fan of 2-page Essay reviews) and I dont like ruining movies for fellow watchers. I thought this film had a great/complex story line. It definitively keeps you hooked, it is well narrated and character driven. The story-line plays out decently, taking you through an emotional roller coaster from love & hate to action, betrayal, cold-blooded murder, loyalty, courage etc. . The cast is rich with well seasoned actors, Ethan Hawke was awesome but Nicholas Cage was impervious. Overall in the end the movie had a great message and it actually opens your eyes to whats really going on in the world...

... because this was the OLD Nicholas Cage-style of movie. The kind before he started his current run of awful dreck. The kind that was good. It made me miss those days. In any event, this was a terrific movie with a good cast and better script. It was well-worth watching.

This is one of my favorite films of all time. Great story of how Ukranian immigrants in the US get the urge to make lots of money by selling guns on a mass scale to warn torn countries. We see the effect of these weapons on the countries as well as the effect of selling these guns on the main characters and their family. Overall amazing movie and the quality is superb here on amazon.

I enjoyed this movie very much. Nicholas Cage always delivers a good performance and this was a good and realistic story with drama and comedy. It was a good watch from beginning to end.

Nicholas Cage: Need I say more? This is now my favorite NC movie, because of his wry, understated performance. Yes, wry and understated is what I said! Ethan Hawke is a good foil, but Nick carries the movie. Nuf said!

Eye-opening and realistic depiction of the real-life international gun runner. Yuri Olov sold weapons to anyone and everyone in the world for a price. He even sold weapons to both sides of a conflict. Those of us in the US who want to ban guns need to see this. No matter how illegal a gun trade is you simply cannot prevent a gun being sold to someone who believes in a cause. Even if that cause is simply freedom. Because there will always be someone willing to sell them.

Judging from the reviews (and, say, from an endorsement by Amnesty International), most people consider this movie as a movie about arms trade, especially about private arms dealers. The main character, Yuri Orlov, is such a dealer, and the movie tells the story of his life so far, so this is indeed correct to some extent. Unfortunately, the deeper aspects of the movie are hardly appreciated. For me, this movie is about Yuri Orlov, brilliantly played by Nicolas Cage, and about the complexity of human existence in the modern world (Milan Kundera) resulting from the modern technology. The other movies directed by Andrew Niccol, the director of Lord of War, are Gattaca, S1m0ne, and In time (all are also written by him). All of them are about the effects of future technology on human existence. They do not seriously overstep the borders of what is possible according to the modern science (in contrast with legions of others sci-fi movies). In Niccols movies the more advanced future technology is only a tool for focusing attention on some things already in place. It is not surprising at all that in one of his movies Andrew Niccol deals with an existing technology. This technology, mostly the Soviet machine-gun AK-47, is about 60-65 years old. It was a real breakthrough, and if one takes into account the cost and the ease of use, it may still be the best. AK-47 is the main merchandise Yuri Orlov is trading; mostly because trading in AK-47 is the best from purely business point of view. He would trade in jet fighters or nuclear submarines, if governments wouldnt reserve this more profitable trade for themselves. Near the end of the movie (this is not a spoiler) Orlovs wife asks him why he is doing this. He answers Im good at it. Here is one of the main problems of human existence: when somebody discovers that she or he is very good at something, the desire to do this is overwhelming. One may find this something to be morally objectionable, leading to a very boring life, or whatever. The desire to do things you are good at usually wins. Yuri Orlov is going to great lengths to fight his own feeling that his business is morally objectionable. It is sad that not only he almost succeeds, but that his arguments are valid and accepted by the governments and the society (both in the movie and in the real world). By this reason he continues his business instead of being behind bars, and is doomed to be tormented by his guilt. He got into such a miserable situation not because of wars, mass killings, or genocide here or there. All of this existed during the whole history of humankind. He was put into his position by the AK-47 and by more modern technologies enabling global trading. If not these technologies, he would have a life miserable in a different sense of the word, a life with an unrequested talent. Some people dislike the movie much enough as to say that it was a waste of $5.00 because it is anti-American. It is most resolutely not. Just before the final credits it said that the most of the arms trading is done not by American arms dealers and even not by the American government (as some are inclined to think). You may watch Lord of war as a purely political movie (it is exceptionally good as such), but then you should be ready for a lot of objectionable things in it, no matter what your political position is. The movie gives no definite answers, and does not put the blame squarely on Orlov personally, USA as the universal villain, or dissolution of the USSR, for example - name your own favorite. But there are no such answers. I watched Lord of War as a movie about Yuri Orlov. This wasnt my intention. I watched it only because it was directed by Andrew Niccol. It just turned out this way. It is great as a movie about a person with strange gift (all real gifts are strange) in our complex world. The performance of Nicolas Cage is one of the best in his career. He is way too often cast into a role of a cartoon character with high level of adrenalin (he is good at this, for sure). But Lord of war is one of the movies showing Nicolas Cage as a truly great actor (he is much better as Yuri Orlov than in his Oscar-winning performance in Leaving Las Vegas). The script by Andrew Niccol is brilliant. He manages to explain a lot in a couple of phrases and a minute of screen time (watch the development of the relations of Orlov with his wife). Usually I hate the voiceover; this is the first movie in which I found the voiceover to be not objectionable at all. The movie contains some subtle references to other movies, which are hard to notice while watching it for the first time. The most important ones are to Rumble fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983), and to Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985). They indicate the proper context for this movie. May be there is one more important reference. The nemesis of Yuri Orlov, an idealistic Interpol agent, is named Jack Valentine (played by Ethan Hawke). And there is Jill Valentine, a character from Resident Evil videogames and movies. It is very hard to believe that there are people such as Jack Valentine who have so much power as he has. This character is needed for the movie by the well justified standards of screenwriting. It is hard to go without an interpersonal conflict, and without a really good person such as Jack Valentine. But he is from a videogame. Actually, Jack Valentine personifies Orlovs conscience.

Henry Ford did it.... Was this man any more of a criminal than him? I say no. Supplying vehicles to transport men to battle....is that any less of a crime than selling the weapons the men carry in these transports?..Think about it before you label this man as a villain and Henry Ford a hero of industry. This is a good movie to illustrate the real criminals in war. The men that supply the ability to fight. It is almost a shame that they didnt make the correlation between Henry Ford and this man.